A well stocked pantry... Canned Goods & Condiments

I don't keep too many canned foods in my pantry, because I don't like the taste of a lot of things in cans, a lot of times they are filled with extra sodium and other things as preservatives.  However, there are a few canned items that are always in my pantry. For a quick go-to meal I keep canned beans of all varieties in the pantry.  Just make sure you really drain and rinse the beans to get all of the extra "stuff" off of them.  I also keep coconut milk on hand for my Indian food nights.  I can't say enough good things about canned tomatoes, of all varieties!  They are canned very soon after being picked and if you choose the cans with "no salt added" you aren't getting a lot of extra sodium.  I buy stewed, crushed, whole, diced, tomatoes as well as tomato sauce and tomato paste.  I buy the San Marzano for my marinara sauce, but I buy whatever is on sale for my salsa tomatoes.  Also for salsa I keep a can of Rotel tomatoes.  I like to have corn on hand to throw onto salads sometimes.  Certain fruits are ok in a can to have in a pinch to make a quick fruit salad.  I usually have mandarin oranges and pineapple in cans in the fridge and then toss them with apples, kiwi, grapes and any other fruit I have on hand.  And, we always have green chilies ready to go for mexican night or to throw into a salsa.

There are a lot of things below that I always have on hand... Wheat Germ, Chili Paste, Satay Peanut Sauce, Dijon Mustard, Honey, Pure Maple Syrup, Raw Sugar, Ghee (clarified butter used in Indian cooking), Broth (vegetable, chicken and beef), Tahina (sesame seed paste used in making hummus), sea salt, ground back pepper and all of the spices you see in the back.

I LOVE salads!!!  One of the things that make them so fun for me is making different salad dressings.  I haven't bought bottled salad dressing in a very long time.  It is so easy to make your own, tastes so much better and is so good for you.  I keep a variety of vinegars on hand as well as different Asian sauces and good quality olive oil.  Mr. Apple Cider vinegar missed this photo shoot, but that is also a great vinegar to have on hand!

This is the good quality olive oil that I just mentioned.  When using extra virgen olive oil for making salad dressings please use a good one.  The taste will be worth it!  The oil you see on the right from Ybarra is actually the oil that I used to use when I lived in Spain.

This is just pure olive oil that I use in most of my cooking that requires a lot of oil for pan frying, etc.  It's cheaper than the oil above and since it isn't extra virgen that makes is a better oil used in frying.